


Rooftop evenings

by bums3ob



Category: MXM (Band), Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Carefree, Colours, Dates, Lighthearted, M/M, Spring, Sunsets, panicked gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 07:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18686779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bums3ob/pseuds/bums3ob
Summary: A serie of dates at the rooftop between two strangers that become fond of each other faster than expected





	Rooftop evenings

It had become a habit of Donghyun to come to the rooftop of the building. Despite being in Seoul, the building wasn’t very high compared to the ones you could see around. Up there, he couldn’t see much besides the surroundings of the building, some other rooftops and the street below, but he also couldn’t hear the bustle of the city.  
Nobody came to the rooftop anyway so he took the chance and arranged a comfortable seat, a small table and somehow managed to tie a blanket from the wall to one of the remaining metallic fence the building still had in order to be under shade on a sunny day. He was lucky that the rooftop was not very big and hadn’t struggled much when tying the blanket.

Donghyun’s major was music, focused on composition. He for sure was pursuing something he loved and liked to do, so it is natural to think he would come here to get inspiration to write, compose or even play the guitar, his beloved instrument, yet he came to do other things: some days he went to read, listen to music, some days he would just blankly stare at the sky. He remembers he used to be a bibliophile when he was younger but lost interest over the years. However, since he came from Daejeon to pursue his dream, reading became his way to escape, at least momentarily, from daily life, but didn’t necessarily need to read to do that.

 

 

Today was one of those days he needed to space out for a bit and took the elevator to the seventh floor, where he could walk up the stairs to the rooftop. The day was partially cloudy, but the sun was visible and still shone strong. Maybe it was because it rained for the few past days, but Donghyun caught a whiff of spring. Wind was blowing gently and helped him fight the heat. Thankfully, he thought. He came earlier than usual so he decided to sit and wait until the sunset. He reclined the back seat to a point he was half lying, put some music on his mobile out loud and closed his eyes, proceeding to immerse into his thoughts.

After what seemed like an eternity to him, he heard the noise of the door opening and steps slowly approaching him when he decided to open his eyes and get up to look who managed to sneak into the rooftop. When he turned to the person, he saw a boy not much taller than himself with a hair colour he could describe as burgundy or bourgogne that changed according to the amount of light it reflected. It covered his forehead to his eyebrows and was a little bit curly. He had small but elongated eyes with the outer corner a little down, which made him look a little sad, but the grin on his lips said otherwise. He had both of his ears pierced and was wearing casual clothes, what seemed to be an oversized striped white pyjama shirt with a grey tracksuit pants.

“Eh…” the boy said, finally breaking the ice. “Hello, are you Kim Donghyun?”

The sudden burst of words from the boy startled him, they might have been staring at each other for so long. He grabbed his phone to turn off the music “Yes, it is me. And you are…?” He asked back kindly.

“My name’s Im Youngmin, I live on the fourth floor. I –” the boy hesitated briefly after going on, “I recently moved there and I don’t have a clothes line yet in my house, so I was wondering if I could hang up the clothing here,” he said while moving his arms, which held a basket. Donghyun didn’t notice it carried clothes at all until now.

Cute, Donghyun thought. He inspected his surroundings to think of a way to tie a clothes line, but there was nothing to do so on the wall of the entrance. “I don’t think we can hang a clothes line here, there is no support on the wall. But I do have a drying rack in home, do you want me to bring it over?” he replied.

“It’s not necessary, really, I could just hand them around –” but Donghyun cut him off and started walking towards the door.

“It is nothing, really! Wait here for a moment” he said smiling. He couldn’t tell very well since it could be the sun light, but he thinks he saw Youngmin blushing. 

Because he didn’t want to make the boy wait too much, he took the stairs instead and rushed supporting himself on the railing. There were only 3 stories any ways. How could his new neighbour possibly moved in without him noticing it? He discarded the possibility of Youngmin living next to his door, since he would have heard the noises, so he could only live in the two opposite doors to his. 

 

 

Once he had the drying rack, he took the elevator back to the seventh floor and went to the rooftop. Youngmin was now staying on the shade projected by the blanket and staring the surroundings, the basket lying on the floor.

“Hey” Donghyun said, drawing the attention from the boy, who turned back. “Be careful, the wall is quite low and most of the fence is missing” he added playfully, while deploying the rack.

Youngmin proceeded to pick up the basket and approached Donghyun, setting the rack on the sun near the shade. “I’m very careful, I was just looking around,” he replied and put the basket on top of the rack.

Donghyun couldn’t help but smile. “I know, I am just playing around”. He looked the pile of clothes. “Do you want me to help you hang this?”

Youngmin, who was taken aback, declined his help. He had underwear among the clothes and whereas it was ok for him to be shown, it would be embarrassing if the boy hanged them. Donghyun then went back to the seat. 

“How long have you been living there?” Donghyun asked after a couple of minutes, minutes that felt like an eternity.

Youngmin couldn’t put into words how much he was thankful that he started the conversation, as he was not a person that would carry conversations. “I moved in last weekend, so 6 days from today,” he quickly recalled.

Donghyun really didn’t have a clue on how he could not hear him moving, but these were flats normally rented to students, so he would not have needed big things. He could also have moved when he was studying our out of home, that explained not seeing him around the common areas.

“I asked an ahjumma I saw a few days ago who I had to ask the rooftop keys,” he started this time, “she told me nobody comes to the rooftop since a long time, but one owner of the pair of keys was a boy who came here occasionally, so I tried coming today and lucked out”. He pauses to take another piece of clothing. “The door was half-open, so I stepped out”.

Donghyun was a bit confused because he always shuts the door in order to not get disturbed by some neighbour, but he was not heartbroken about this but completely the opposite.

The boy finished hanging the clothes. Frowning, he stared at Donghyun, who was sitting in the seat staring back at him, with a hand over his eyes to cover from the sun. Donghyun said the sunset will be soon, so he suggested Youngmin to stay here and chat for a bit, an offer which he can naturally not refuse. Donghyun sat on the floor leaning on the table, as he encouraged Youngmin to do the same since he didn’t like to be up on him on the seat.

The day’s warm, but not hot. A breeze of wind gently blows their skin, moving their hair, rustling the metallic fence.

Donghyun shook his head and fixed his bangs. “I live on the fourth floor as well. I’m not renting the flat, my parents bought it long ago and I moved here to attend university. They haven’t the major I wanted back in my hometown, Daejeon, that’s why”. He put a grin on his face, which made his expressions lean towards a side of his face as he talked. “Back in Daejeon I lived in a house with a big balcony, and I spent fairly a good time there. But in this apartment, I don’t have such thing, so I had to contact the neighbours until I manage to get the key for the rooftop, then got a set of keys for myself”.

After holding forth at such length he looked away and looked back again at Youngmin. The boy had been listening attentively through all his speech, but had to look away a few times because Donghyun was gazing at him all the time, which embarrassed him.

Donghyun could see sparkles in Youngmin’s eyes. They were naturally as if he had tears on them, but wasn’t the case. “Your family owns the apartment? That’s lucky” He said. “My rental contract expired so I had to move. This was the best option”. Donghyun was looking at him so fondly he had to look away again because he started to blush. “A-anyway”, the boy stuttered. “What major did you choose?”

“Can you guess?”

Youngmin didn’t know what to say. “You look…” he paused and examined the boy before going on. “… like a biology student?”

“Fat chance” he laughed. “I major Composition in CAU… what?” the other boy pulled a surprised face and he couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Me too! I am in my second year!” he said, too hurriedly he almost tripped his words. Youngmin’s eyes would squint a little whenever he laughed, showing a faint eye smile. Donghyun thought he resembled an alpaca somehow.

They kept talking about how Youngmin took a gap year because he was not sure what to do and worked in his parents’ tomato farm in Busan. He talked about his little brother, his life back there, his friends, his present life in Seoul. While Youngmin liked to rap, Donghyun focused on singing, but they both had in common their passion for composing. “We should write a song together!” Donghyun said cheerily. And so they agreed to do in a future.

In a brief pause of their conversation, Donghyun realised it was dusking, so he told him to come with him and see the sunset.

“This building isn’t very tall and you are not able to see the sun hid until the skyline, but in this spot you can see it to its furthest point among the buildings. Right there” he said, raising his arm and pointing the buildings in the distance.

 

 

They stood here for a long time, thinking long and hard without saying much, only Donghyun pointing at places and naming them. 

Donghyun had a habit of approaching people too close when talking with them, regardless of whether he knew them or not. It was not until this point that Youngmin learned that. Their arms and hands kept touching. Youngmin moved little by little to the side to not be very close to him, but every time he pointed at something he would return right to his side. Thinking he might notice it and could be seem as rude, he started to play with his hands. As if Donghyun had indeed noticed, he looked at Youngmin’s hands and returned his gaze to the sunset.

Donghyun swung his feet forward and backwards a few times. “Your clothes should be almost dry by now” he stopped and looked at the other, who reciprocated. “Should we be going now? I can walk you home”

“I- what? But we live downstairs?”

“I know”. This time was Youngmin who laughed.

Whilst Donghyun went to pick up his phone, Youngmin picked his clothes. Once done, Donghyun carried the drying rack and walked towards the door. Youngmin came in first, and he went down the stairs to push the button for the lift. Even though the lift was small they managed to fit in with the rack. When they arrived at the fourth floor, no one of the two wanted to say goodbye.

“Can you give me your number? We have to make our next date” Donghyun said.

‘Our next date’? Youngmin shook the strange thoughts. “Sure, hand me your phone” said still unsure. When he got the mobile from Donghyun’s hand, he saw he’d saved him as ‘Alpaca’ along a tomato emoji. He could feel his face lighten up and blushing, and there was no way of avoiding Donghyuns eyes this time. “Why would you save me like this? Do I resemble an alpaca?” he whined.

Youngmin formed a pout in his expression. “Don’t you like it? I can change it if it is not okay with you!” Donghyun replied with a broad smile, which didn’t lightened Youngmin’s red face.

“It’s okay! I actually like it!” They stood like they were for a few seconds. “I should be going now, I have to make dinner and be early for tomorrow’s classes” Youngmin excused himself. It was not truly an excuse, however he couldn’t resist any longer the boy’s gaze, who kept a smiling face all the time.

“Ok, let’s meet soon hyung! I won’t forget to bring you a pair of keys!” They said goodbye and Donghyun turned away to open his apartment’s door, not before looking back at Youngmin, who did the same and pretended he didn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> Even if it is childish and messy thank you a lot for reading  
> I'm stuck with this piece but maybe posting it will preassure me enough to continue writing. I will post the following part as soon as I can. I'm currently writing a Hwall x Kevin fic as well!!  
> Thanks Nat for reviewing the first part!  
> Heavily inspired in Murakami's novels".  
> Here's my [twitter](https://twitter.com/tagcheek)


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